Odd and the Frost Giants

When Odd wakes up, he hears scratching outside the hut. Briefly afraid of trolls and bears, he decides to open the door. The sun is bright, revealing that it is late morning, and a fox is sitting in the snow, staring at him. The fox jumps into the air briefly and retreats, then returns to Odd, then retreats again, clearly inviting Odd to follow him into the woods. Odd, realizing he has nothing better to do and does not wish to go back home, decides to follow the fox.

It leads him deep into the woods, waiting for him whenever he needs a break. Odd spots a bird circling overhead and realizes it is a large eagle that seems to be watching him. Odd continues to follow the fox, slipping several times when going downhill, until they stop in front of a fallen dead pine and a birch growing close beside it. There is a hole in the side of the pine, a likely place for a bees’ nest; Odd thinks of the mead the villagers make. Instead of honey, however, he sees a bear with a gigantic paw stuck in the hole.

Odd quickly assesses the situation and realizes that the bear must have become trapped by the birch tree, which snapped back into place when the bear let it go after getting its paw in the pine tree. Seeing that the bear is miserable, Odd decides to help it. He uses his axe and small pieces of wood to chop the bear’s paw free, acknowledging as he does so that he knows the bear can eat him if it wants.

Freed, the bear eagerly eats the honey it was trying to get. Odd eats a piece of honeycomb as well. The bear finishes the honey and then stands up and roars but makes no move to harm Odd. Odd decides to go home but realizes he can’t find his way. He slips on a patch of ice and falls flat. He feels the bear breathing on his neck, but the bear doesn’t harm him; it sits and gestures with a paw for Odd to climb on its back. Odd, deciding his situation can’t get worse, climbs onto the bear’s back, and they set off quickly into the night.

Odd looks around him and realizes the fox and eagle are also following the bear into the woods. He daydreams about being a lord with a horse, dog, and falcon from one of his mother’s stories, and even as it grows colder, “Odd laughed some more, because his hut was waiting for him, and he was an impossible lord riding a bear, and because he was Odd” (31).

They arrive at the hut, and Odd thanks the bear. The eagle lands, and Odd realizes it has only one eye. All three animals come up to the door, and Odd realizes they want to come in. He lets them in reluctantly.

Odd’s salmon, intended to feed him for a week, is gone within the night, as all three animals help him finish it off. He decides to sleep and find more food tomorrow. Odd falls asleep in the bed, which he realizes doesn’t smell like his father at all, and has strange dreams and half-formed nightmares. When he wakes up, he hears voices arguing—a deep voice (the bear) insisting it wasn’t his fault, and a higher voice (the fox) bitterly insisting he tried to warn the other about the tree. The bear blames the fox for getting them into the mess in the first place until a third voice silences them.

Odd rolls over and confronts the animals about their ability to speak, who try to deny it by saying nothing, until the bear finally lets their secret slip. The eagle forces the others to explain the situation to Odd, and they reveal that they are gods. The bear is Thor, the fox is Loki, and the eagle is Odin. They have been trapped, nearly powerless, in animal bodies. Loki decides to narrate his version of the story.

In Loki’s story—regularly interrupted by Thor—they are feasting in Asgard, a beautiful and indestructible city of the gods. The city is protected by a wall built long ago by a Frost Giant who wanted the sun, moon, and the goddess Freya as payment. Loki proudly explains how he tricked the Frost Giant out of his payment at the last minute.

After the feast, Loki is still awake, so he goes for a walk. While walking on the walls around Asgard, he sees a beautiful woman standing in the moonlight. She calls out to him and flatters him so much that he offers to let her inside the city walls, but she insists that she cannot give Loki anything lest she upset her father, who has forced her to promise she will not give her heart to anyone who doesn’t bear Mjolnir, Thor’s mighty hammer.

Loki, taken by her beauty, runs inside and takes the hammer from the sleeping Thor. Since he cannot carry it, he uses his magical shoes, which can walk on the air, to float the hammer outside. He brings it to the crying maiden, who insists she loves him but cannot love him fully until she touches the hammer. He eagerly lets her take it, but before he can kiss her, she laughs in a frightening, deep voice and transforms into a giant, now holding the hammer. The Giant transforms Loki into a fox by force—he notes that sometimes he takes animal form by his own will, and it feels different—and then forces Heimdall, protector of the Rainbow Bridge, to transport them to Midgard, the human world.

After hearing this story, Odd decides that he can’t feed them all and himself through the winter. Thor explains that as gods, they can’t die, but they will become more animalistic over time. He also explains that the winter won’t end until the Frost Giant is defeated, and if winter doesn’t end, the people in Midgard will starve and die as a new Ice Age occurs. Odd announces that when morning comes, they will go to Asgard to stop the giant; his confidence baffles the gods. He goes back to sleep.